Wairarapa College ended Academy's unbeaten run with a 43-run victory in their Wairarapa Umpires Cup senior men's inter-club cricket match on Saturday. The students won the toss and elected to bat, making a solid but slow start. After 25 of the allotted 50 overs they had lost just the two wicketsand set a platform for the big hitting which followed. A 100-run partnership between Jeremy Anderson and Tim Butler for the third wicket proved vital in the end result, with Anderson returning to form with a hard-hit 68 amd Butler playing the anchor role in getting through to 50. They laid the foundations for Sam Monaghan to come to the wicket in the 40th over and bludgeon the ball to all parts of the field in his run-a-ball 38, which included two big sixes. A semi-collapse at the end of their innings did slow Wairarapa College up to some extent but their 209 was always likely to be defendable. The pick of the Academy bowlers was P .Jones who took 5-55 from his nine overs. Academy started their run chase in a circumspect manner with the idea being not to lose early wickets, but Joel Macklin and Richard Irons maintained a good line for Wairarapa College and both were rewarded with wickets in their opening spells that of Macklin coming from a catch by Sam Treseder in his debut game for the first XI. The loss of further wickets saw Academy struggling, but when the in-form Jamie Perkin came to the crease their fortunes improved. He was very strong off the front foot and was looking dangerous when he was dismissed by Jeremy Anderson, who had a good day with bat and ball. Wairarapa College were also aided by some tidy bowling through the middle overs by Cameron Stone and Darren Jones, with Stone picking up three wickets and Jones two and the highlight of a good fielding effort were two run outs, one by Macklin and the other by Anderson. In the end Academy were all out for 166 in their 45th over, 43 runs short of the Wairarapa College total. Meanwhile, the Wairarapa under-14 cricket team for the 2006 season has been named. It is: Mark Cummings, Gordon Reisima, Daniel Ingham, Sam Davies, Jacob Smith, Tom Byl, Andrew Rodgers, Richard Woolgar, Cameron Hobbs, Reece Hannam, Alex McColl, Quentin McKenna.
